Author: EG

Watch this short video of the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania (courtesy to the National Geographic), a unique site for pilgrims and tourists alike. “At first it seems like the perfect place to take pictures. But after a while I stopped taking pictures and just started to absorb it” as was well noticed by Christopher Muther of Boston Globe (full story of his trip to Lithuania).

Well, a 10-min video may be trying to showcase too much in one shot, but it is still interesting to watch. This may probably be one of the first tries of a guy to boast himself on youtube, but you just cannot ignore his enthusiasm. Lithuania video, #saltibarsciai

Lithuania video #saltibarsciai

There’s a lot to see and feel every time we are visiting a new city. We can admire the architecture and the layout, we can meet locals in a cafe, we can visit the museums and galleries. Do you have a tradition to see how every city looks from a bird’s eye view? In case you are always looking for a platform to see a new city from above, here is the list of possible Riga observation decks:

Riga observation decks in the Old Town

The highest tower in the Old Town of Riga is the Bell Tower of St. Peter’s Church.
We are lucky if a city we are visiting has an Old Town and it always appears on a must-see list even if we are staying a bit outside, probably saving a buck. To see the old town roofs from above may become your biggest inspiration and the bell tower of the St. Peter’s Church is the perfect place in Riga. Well, it’s quite tight and crowded at times.
Closed on Mondays
More details: http://peterbaznica.riga.lv/en/serviceshours

St Peter’s Church Riga

Riga observation decks outside the Old Town

Academy of Sciences in Riga – this is an imposing building just beyond Riga Market when walking from the old town. It is cheaper here than at St. Peter’s Church, the building also boasts bigger capacity and therefore should be well considered, especially if you come in a group of friends.Open daily April thru November
More details: http://www.panoramariga.lv

Academy of Sciences Riga

Riga Observation Decks outside the Old Town

Skyline Bar Riga of Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija is a perfect deck for Riga-at-night panoramas.
It is a bar, yes, and you can also get a meal here, so this three-in-one composition could serve the best solution to those with limited time resource.Open daily
More details: http://www.skylinebar.lv

Riga Observation Decks on a map

Pope Francis was on a tour of the Baltic Countries – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia at the end of September 2018 and has been granted the trending e-Residency of Estonia.

Estonia has e-residents across 157 countries as of September 25, 2018, when His Holiness have become the first e-resident from Vatican City.

Estonia is making friends around the world, while helping democratise access to entrepreneurship and connecting more people across borders.

Estonian e-Residency digital ID card may be used to – verify the identity online, – digitally sign documents, – access Estonia’s public and private e-services from anywhere in the world.

The primary reason for people to become e-residents is to overcome barriers to entrepreneurship and create a trusted, location-independent company that they can establish and manage online from anywhere.

P.S. Estonia is claimed to be one of the least religious countries in the world and just 0,4% of the population declared being Roman Catholics, which is approx 4500 people.

We all know Asian food is one of the most popular invasive foods wherever you travel. Not all the places are worth calling them true Asian, though.

These could be the reasons (at least in Estonia; well, at least as Ken Saburi claims they are).

Why Asian food in Estonia is still not up to scratch.

I was once an “advisor” to an Asian restaurant in Tartu (the second largest town in Estonia – editor) for a short time and I believe I have some insights why Asian restaurants in Estonia suck big time. There are exceptions – but as the word suggests, exceptions.

1) Greedy clueless incompetent bosses. 2) When you see “Asian” restaurants that claim to do Chinese, Indian and Thai cuisine, run as far as you can! It’s like a “European” restaurant somewhere in Asia that claims to do Italian, English and Finnish cuisine. 3) Most of these restaurants have 100 or more items on their menu. Ever wonder how their kitchens cope with it? By pre-cooking loads of meat, rice and noodles a day or two before. They will simply microwave most of them upon order. In other words, classic Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmare practices. 4) The cooks are either lazy, fake or have their balls to the walls because of their dumb bosses, which lead them to cook pure rubbish. 5) Hard-to-get spices? That’s a myth. I lived with Indians and Pakistanis during my dorm days in Tartu and the food they cooked was as authentic as it can be. Needless to say – their food was way better than the restaurants’. 6) Customers not knowing any better. Just this summer (of 2017), I was introduced to an Indian and Thai restaurant in Tallinn. I was sceptical, but I saw that it has a 4.8/5 rating on Facebook. Letting my guard down, I decided to give it a chance. Boy oh boy, I will never return to the restaurant. 7) Every single thing is doused or marinated in, or served with ketchup sauce. Fried rice/noodles, ketchup. Butter chicken, ketchup. Curry sauce, the taste of ketchup in it. Ketchup, more ketchup. Can’t taste any quintessential Indian spices like turmeric, cumin or masala.

Are bees grouping together in a colony like English-speakers would say? In Lithuanian the word for a human family is used. Also in the Lithuanian language, there are separate words for death depending on whether you’re talking about people or animals, but for bees the former is used. And if you want to show a new-found Lithuanian pal what a good friend they are, you might please them by calling them bičiulis (beechulis), a word roughly equivalent to ‘mate’, which has its root in bitė (beeteh) – bee.